


Reckoning

by StrangelySmitten (BotanyCameos)



Category: Doctor Strange (2016)
Genre: (Maybe that's why it hurts even more.), (Sort of. Karl has softness in his heart even when he doesn't intend to.), Angst, Dormammu is only mentioned, Emotional Whump, M/M, Nightmares, Post-movie angst, Villain Mordo, Whump, mordo angst, stephen whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-09 13:50:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10413609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BotanyCameos/pseuds/StrangelySmitten
Summary: Mordo has been away for many months, but he's finally had a revelation. There are too many sorcerers and he's meant to cleanse the world of them...





	

 

 

 

 ~~~

 

  
He’d been away for many months, before he had his revelation.

Months of harsh introspection and lonely training.

But it was over now. At long last, the time of reckoning had begun.

He finally knew what his purpose in life was.

He was meant to _cleanse_ the world.

To remove from it the taint of sorcery.

To purify it of those thieving sorcerers twisting the natural order and stealing power. Some, like Pangborn, he would punish for their transgressions by merely taking away from them everything they'd stolen, but others… others had gone much too far and only their lives might begin to repay the world.

The natural order demanded their blood in repayment for their crimes. He was sure of it.

He wore the _Wings of Needless Sorrow_ now, affixed to the inside of coat, over his heart, as he walked the world in search of the countless thieves he was meant to cut down.

After all, there had to be a price.

The bill comes due. He was just the collector, meant to enforce that natural order.

They, the sorcerers, were the ones who had brought this reckoning upon themselves, not him.

Though in the end even he would pay too. They all would.

~~~

 

  
As time passed, many fell to his hand, and each time the power they had been misusing was taken away and added to his.

Each one made him a more effective enforcer of the natural law.

A more effective instrument of punishment.

Finally, he grew powerful enough to break past the defenses of the New York Sanctum Sanctorum unnoticed, to breach its magical barriers and sneak up to its unsuspecting Master.

Cloaked by an arcane spell that hid him even from the many relics and artifacts housed in the ancient abode, Mordo stood by the side of the wide bed and gazed down on the sleeping form of Stephen Strange, marveling that he had gotten so far undetected.

After all, the man whose life he’d come to collect tonight was the worst of them all. The brightest student, the fastest learner, the one who had risen through the ranks so much faster than even Mordo had hoped might be possible, and Mordo had once had almost infinite faith in Stephen. The man who used to be his student, his younger brother in training, whom Mordo had gazed upon with true pride and even love as he guided him through his training. Back then, he'd felt such a fierce streak of protectiveness towards this man so broken and so out of place.

Of them all, Stephen was the one Mordo had been closest to, other than _her_ , and that was precisely why the betrayal had hurt so much. Especially so soon after hers.

Stephen had forcefully ripped the truth wide open in front of Mordo’s unwilling eyes, revealing the true nature of the Ancient One and driving him to see that everything he’d believed in had been nothing but a lie.

And then, Stephen had turned around and become exactly the kind of person she’d been.

He had taken everything away from Mordo, including himself, by destroying what Mordo had thought Stephen was, by becoming like her.

_You broke everything, and you will pay. You will pay most of all._

Mordo’s determination was as sharp and unyielding as the cursed dagger he had readied to take Strange’s life, and which he now held in a tight grip as he leaned over the bed, watching the erratic breathing of the sleeping sorcerer beneath him.

But perhaps It wasn’t so surprising that Mordo had gotten there undetected. The man in the bed seemed far too occupied by his own subconscious to notice anything amiss in his bedroom at the moment.

Oblivious to the danger lurking inches away from him, Stephen Strange was tossing and turning in a fitful sleep.

The words that kept rolling from his lips, mumbled and barely audible through the veil of sleep as they may be, were what delayed his execution. Mordo drew closer, trying to make sense of the litany of muffled sounds coming from the other sorcerer.

_Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain!_

Over and over, the American spoke those words, and immediately after it he’d appear to be seized by pain, twisting and turning in his sleep as sounds of distress escaped his lips. Tears were rolling down his face unbidden. At one point, his muscles contracted so violently that his body arched high above the bed, tense and twitching. He appeared to have bitten his tongue mid-spasm. He fell back down on the sheets and blood rolled out from the corner of his lips, staining the pillow beneath him as he tossed about in another fit.

And yet, he still did not wake, remaining instead the prey of the nightmares that replayed over and over in his mind, unable to stop them or escape.

Flexing his newfound powers, Mordo scanned the other’s mind, to rule out the possibility that he was the victim of a Fear Lord like Nightmare.

What he saw inside was such that he recoiled from it rapidly, regardless of how much resolve he had thought he had, or how much his powers had grown. But even in that brief glimpse of an eternity of horrors, he’d seen enough.

_Dormammu._

When Stephen had landed behind Kaecilius and spoke of a bargain he had made -- _with Dormammu!! How could such an obscenity be even spoken aloud,_ Mordo had wondered then--, he had feared the worst. He had expected some kind of depravity that would further risk the Earth and the Natural Law.

But this was the very opposite.

Strange’s “bargain” was the purest self-sacrifice of all, and the suffering he’d endured was the most brutal possible, over and over, to save them all.

Mordo still couldn’t find it in himself to forgive him for his other transgressions, for the use of time magic and the undoing of so much spilled blood in Hong Kong, something which Mordo deeply believed would only result in more being spilled in consequence.

But he no longer knew what to do now.

Not to Stephen, at least.

He watched the man toss and turn in his agonized sleep for several more minutes, in rapt fascination over every cry torn from his lips, every drop of sweat beading on his forehead, every twitch from his limbs, his hands still shaking even in his sleep.

So much fragility and pain, and yet so much strength and courage and self-denial.

_The bill comes due._

Mordo sighed. It _had_ come due. For them all.

And Stephen Strange had paid it, was still paying it, every day and every night. More than Mordo or anyone else could possibly have imagined.

Reaching down towards the bed, Mordo gingerly touched the side of Stephen's face, as if he was touching something infinitely fragile and precious. The skin was cool and clammy, cold sweat clinging to his fingers. Mordo's hand glowed for a fraction of a second. Soon after, the American sorcerer’s expression grew calmer rather than pained, and his sleep became less agitated.

The nightmares would remain, but at least for one night, he might have some respite. He’d earned it. He was paying the bill for everyone on the planet, after all.

Mordo would have to try and figure out what he should do of his own life in light of this new discovery, but in the meantime, if he should end up sneaking back into the Sanctum to help Strange find some moments of peace and rest in the same manner on other nights, well, no one needed to know. Not even Strange.

 

 

 ~ The End ~

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> (Needless to say, the fic is heavily centered on Mordo's feelings. I don't actually think what TAO did to keep protecting the Earth was a betrayal. Nor what Stephen did.)
> 
> I strongly think the traumatic nature of all those events, TAO's death, and the seed Kaecilius planted in Hong Kong by making Mordo think he'd lose Stephen too, are what is truly to blame for Mordo's departure at the end of the movie. Also, I think Mordo would have seriously reconsidered or even flat-out stayed for sure, if he had known the truth about the "bargain" with Dormammu and how much Stephen had suffered to save them all.
> 
> And lastly, gifs from [KarlMordo.](http://karlmordo.tumblr.com/post/157338204090)


End file.
